FlightMan

about this country.

This post was brought about by the thread about the 19 year old who got let off a fine by sitting still in court for 30 mins. And the tw@t who told us to remember what we did at 19 coz 90% of us would be in jail.
Well matey, I dont know what the **** you were upto at 19, but I wasnt breaking laws, and my friends weren't either. My first job paid £30 a week, i paid £10 to my , mum for keep, £8 on bus fairs, £5 down the pub at lunchtime on my girlfriend, now wife, so THAT was worth it!. That left me £7 a week to myself. I didnt own/run/tax/insure a car because i couldnt afford it. Nowadays, they just drive untaxed/uninsured/un-MOT'd vehicles, and "say **** it, I can sit still for 30 mins"

And then that got me thinking.
I'm off work for a week and was talking to an elderly neighbour 85 years old he is, and he was telling me how people walking down the path beside his garden have started lobbing things in his garden, over his 6ft wooden fence. Things like, traffic cones, bottles, beer cans, clutches!, half a bike, and a wheel off a car.
Why? What do the scum that walk the streets get out of this? Are they the same scum who key cars? Are they the same scum who trash childrens playgrounds? Who graffiti walls, with illegible scawls, that arent upto the standard of my 4 year old? That generally **** up our surroundings?
I'm walking my daughter to school this week, and am shocked at the morons who drive down the road, at 40-50mph in a 30 limit, past the hoards of 4 to 11 year olds on the pavement. Some on the phone, some eating breakfast. So now we walk through our estate, on the quieter residential roads. Ever see a speed camera on this road? Nope. Last week a copper died on Red Road hill in Camberley. The fourth fatality over the years, on the same corner? Any sign of a "safety camera"? Nope. Just before the school, theres a small wooded copse. Look closely at it and its full of litter. Beercans. Bread bags, bottles, oil canisters, MacDonalds cartons/ My daughter asks me why people drop littler, and I cant answer. Are these the same scum who sit at the entrance to my estate in their vans, eat there MacDonalds, and then drop all their crap out of the window, before driving off? W@nkers.

Not sure where I'm going with this. I'm just a 38 year old, father of 2 beautiful girls, who is angry that no fecking politician, no-one in power, no-one who has any influence, can be bothered to get off their **** and do something. I dont know about you, but I dont think we should put up with it.
What do we pay our taxes for? To bomb Iraq? To send local councillors on fact finding missions to the West Indies? To let MP's spend, what is it, £200 million on new offices? Anyone who has had the misfortune to work with Govt, and I have, will realise that they havent got a fecking clue. Its all about image, and votes.There's old Tony today, shaking hands Gadaffi. He looks, the world statesman. Bollox. A real statesman would have shapped events, not taken advantage of them. Does anyone seriously think he's have been there, if there was the slightest chance it would backfire?

**** it Marseille have scored a second. I'm going to bed.

SiPie

Hope you get a good rest mate

Spoon

I'm on board with you flightman.

Hanslow

I'm inclined to agree 110% (with FlightMan, not SiPie )

'Bout time we had a revolution and instilled some moral values back into disrespectful people...or shot them

SiPie

Hey guys I'm with the guy 100%.... but my brain gets tired thinking about even just one of these things each day but this guy ... wow...he must be pure exhausted

rr_ww

Funny how these same people will support the England football team to the point of violence, "because in ger lands great" but do so much to fuvk it up.

BMWhere?

I took action on this about 7 years ago and moved to a country that still has strong moral and community values and people respect other peoples property and peace!

Redkop

Should make all offenders who escape a prison sentence, regardless of crime, do community service to clear up the rubbish littering this country... but then they would probably get the Human Rights lawyers to get them off it

RichWalk

why do you think so many 'decent' people now adopt many of the traits that signify the detritus in socierty, its because the only way they/ us can deal with the mire around us is to disappear into 'your own world' and try to ignore whats happening!! Of the groups of 50+ year olds I drank with more than half have already left this country, most out of sheer disgust.
Each time I travel abroad, be it on business or on holiday, I return to this country and think 'what a toilet' when I was younger I felt relief at getting back here, but not anymore. I am a similar age to the writer and have seen this country 'fold' in the last 20 odd years, what do you do, wander about hoping for the best until something 'worse than last time' happens? The country is riddled with apathy for these very reasons, no one can see a way forward and that for a nation is very dangerous. I am not advocating any particular political party but one of them has to start opening its eyes and instilling some pride/ community, call it what you will back into the grass roots of the people who make this country work- not pandering to the mindless minority who are so disassociated from anything worthwhile to care.

T4molie

Round my way there's a slight problem with people dumping cars!! Don't know whether they're just old and dumped or have been used in a hit and run type thing - for eg there's a knackered old H reg that's been dumped at the end of my road for nearly 2 months now...everyday I see the Traffic Warden (CPZ controlled parking guy) putting tickets on it!!! some joker keeps taking them off so more go on....I had a word with him the other morning and said that it was quite plainly a dumped car and who do I ring to get it removed? "I don't know sir"!!

If you ring the police they say that it's not down to them...and if you ring the council they say that it's down to the police

Another one is oppo my house there's a pram that's been dumped (along with a load of other sh!te)...I was gonna get shot of it down the local tip but apparently us joe public ppl aren't allowed to remove cr@p from the streets without a license wtf?

And don't even get me started on shopping trolleys!!!

milo

while i TOTALLY agree with you on all points and am not trying to defend people who drop litter, a lot of this problem is due to lack of public bins (or the few that are around are often overfilled).

i know in some woods not too far from where i used to live, there was a litter problem. it was suggested that some bins were put in... but the council refused saying "it would ruin the woodlands to have bins". yeah, much rather have the litter thown around

dpb

...all down, imho, to the fact that nothing is actually made in this country anymore, mag thatch has lot to answer for ,where can the pride come from - whole place is now just a sevice outlet . If you look at the amount o debt tied up in property, and difficulty ftb havin...just plain scary.......................i ll be in france ..........call me after it all collapses

Leslie

That is a very good and accurate post from Flightman. I have watched the deterioration of our society for a good few years now and it is becoming more alarming as time goes by. So many families now take no part in bringing up their children so that the children have no idea of how to behave properly in society as a whole. They have no kind of respect for others and are concerned only with themselves and how many people they can upset out of sheer spite. I hope the numbers are still in the minority but if things go on like this then there will eventually be complete anarchy.

It also does not help when some parents are so frightened that their children will not love them that they give them everything they want and never discipline them. What then happens is that the children grow up into spoilt brats who have no respect whatsoever for their weak minded parents.

I think that the only way to get parents to really bring their children up properly is the to make the parents responsible in law to make good any damage that their children do to other people. That might concentrate a few minds in a better direction. It would just underline the fact that parents really should accept responsibility for their childrens' upbringing and good behaviour. These children will be the parents of the next generation too of course!

Les

Iwan

The area i live in (small town near Swindon - quite a nice area but next to a council estate) has a bit of a problem with dumped cars. We've actually seen cars pull up outside the house and watched as a burberry baseball cap wearing chav jumps out and run off into the council estate, leaving the car to rot or until someone reports it.

Over the last 5 years myself and my neighbours have had to lobby the council/police to move i'd guess 10-15 cars. In our area, if they're on the public highway or are a hazard then the police can apparently instruct the council to move them immediately. A police officer told my neighbour that if the abandoned car has a smashed window then the council are supposed to move it within 24hrs in case kids play in it and hurt themselves - liability issues i guess.

If they'e on the highway then you should contact the police.

If they're dumped on council owned land (e.g. a car park) and not on the road, then you need to ring the council and report them. In our area it used to take months to move a dumped car but now they'll move it within 14 days of putting a notice on it.

Apparently some people are smashing the windows of dumped cars as that gets them moved quicker. Not that i'd recommend doing that as it's probably illegal/dangerous/naughty...

Iwan

fivepint

Milo please... lack of bins is an excuse for the lazy. People should just bring home their own rubbish and dispose of it properly. It's not that hard to place a wrapper in your pocket till you find a bin.

Jye

Its not just England m8, its the whole of the UK thats neck deep in sh1te, just in case you never noticed.

Karl 227

Totally agree with Fightman, like BMWhere I moved to Germany about seven years ago. I often have to go back to the UK because of work and each time I do it seems to have taken a turn for the worse, it starts the moment you get off the plane and are greeted by a miserable sod in passport control after which you see the sign saying that the escalator is broken. When you get your hire car you realise (as you're sitting in traffic next to road works and ten cameras) that it probably would have been quicker to walk, you don't like to look at other people in their cars in case you get the WTF are you looking at look. Eventually you arrive at your vastly over priced hotel, the room is far too hot but you're told "yeah, we can't do nuffink bout that luv, boiler's broke". You go down to the restaurant and are told, "sorry luv, stopped servin at 9.00pm", "but it's only 9.05pm", "sorry luv, not my problem, I can do you a sandwich"! After your crap nights sleep, you find out you've missed breakfast, you're rental car has had the wheels nicked and that the motorway you want to use is gridlocked. I tend to fly in & out in a day now and have my meetings at the airport whenever possible! Sad

BMWhere?

Agreed, but part of the problem is all the polically correct bull we have to live with these days. Parents are afraid to smack the Children for fear of retributions. All the kid or a reighteous neighbour has to do is phone a helpline and say your abusing them (the kid not the neighbour) and your fked! Theres a big difference between child abuse and discipline but the line seems to have become very blurred over the last 20 or so years, much to the detrement of discipline!

Jye

And while I'm here. This is just typical of why this country is such a mess, next door had some yobs break up their fence, they pulled a few spars off it smashed them up and left them lying, while they were at it they smashed a couple of beer bottles on the road right next to the fence. So what did next door do? She went out and picked up the broken bits of fence and put them in her bin completely ignoring all the broken glass which I ended up lifting. Of course she doesnt have a car so its not her problem.

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

Karl you paint a very vivid picture but surely these are only isolated pockets, the whole country is not like this. whenever I go back I go to Lower Earley near Reading and have never had any problems I have left my scooby (with german plates) in car parks in Bracknell, Reading, Lower Earley, Plymouth without any probs.

+Doc+

Scoobynet Political Party anyone? Seems common sense is of abundence on here

milo

but most people are lazy. im not trying to excuse them, and i never myself litter as i think its horrendous.

but i honestly believe that if there were more bins, there would be less litter.

BMWhere?

Steve, didn't someone try to car jack you at a set of traffic lights when you were back in the UK? Good job you were sat on the wrong side of the car!

I bet you also feel a lot more anxious when you leave your car in a car park in the UK than in Germany. I've never had any problems with my scooby in the UK either, but I have had other cars broken into, keyed, wheel hubs nicked, and ariel's broken... I'm extremely carefull with the Scoob in the UK and keep it garaged at home and only park in car parks with manned security! Personally, in Germany I feel as though I could leave my car unlocked with the keys in for a month and it'll still be stood exactly where I left it! How many times have we laughed at Re-Bitten-Hero for fitting his steering lock when he's filling up with petrol - Not to be laughed at in the UK, but other than Richard, I've never even seen a steering lock in Germany!

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

I just parked my car in Hockenheim town centre in front of a gang of teenagers and forgot to lock it, I got back to it about an hour later plipped the plipper and locked it.

It was as I had left it nothing touched or missing.

The kids where interested in the car and spoke to me about it. one of them new exactly what it was.

Ralf

Flightman and Leslie have hit the nail.

Big towns in Germany are a bit different. Especially Hamburg in places or cities in the east of Germany.

And would you belive it? I forgot to lock the passenger door of my BMW when I went for a stroll in the centre of Milan about 12 years back and the car was still there when I returned!

FlightMan

Read the above posts with interest. Thanks for all the positive comments. What saddens me is that "most" people seem to agree with me, yet like me, see that nothing will change, infact it will only get worse. What does this say for our future, and what else does it say about the political parties that rule us? So many people here say its better abroad. Not having lived anywhere else, I cant confirm that, but I cant think its any worse. I know places like the States have gun crime, although most statistics say thats increasing here as well, but its the day to day anti social behaviour that i despair of. Graffitti, littering, yobish behaviour etc. The 47 year old that got kicked to death in Manchester, infront of his family. I mean, what the **** is going on? Anyone? This isnt the country I grew up in.

Re-Bitten Hero

I'm with everyone else that's bailed out... moved to Germany 18 months ago and what a difference. England sucks and that saddens me to say. I firmly blame the PC and hippie generations for a lack of discipline and not instilling any values in their kids. Thankfully my parents had more sense!

In the UK, I had one car (a Rover 214!) smashed up with a baseball bat outside my parents house in a quiet residential estate in a quiet village in the middle of rural Warwickshire. Why? No-one knows. Apparently he was doing one or two a week like this . While I lived in Cambridge, we had two Novas nicked within a week of each other on the tiny cul-de-sac I lived in . Thankfully they didn't touch the Scoob, which was in plain view, as it's covered in anti-theft stuff. I wonder why . I could hear almost every night the scum doing doughnuts and thrashing the stolen cars on the A14 about 2 miles from my house. Round 'em up and give them the kicking of their lives: that they would actually understand.

Plus the number of abandoned cars everywhere is disgusting. It's plain embarrassing when I'm over in England with German friends .

And people ask me why I live in Munich?

Richard

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

Why do you live in Munich Rich

Re-Bitten Hero

Cos you don't